Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costume Parisien, 1805, An 13 (646) Costume Négligé 1805

Curator: Looking at this image, I immediately get a sense of poised awkwardness – a kind of forced elegance in the every day. Editor: That’s a wonderful way to describe it! What we have here is an etching from 1805 by Pierre Charles Baquoy, titled "Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costume Parisien, 1805, An 13 (646) Costume N\u00e9glig\u00e9" currently held in the Rijksmuseum. As the title indicates, it’s part of a fashion journal illustrating Parisian styles of the time. Curator: "Costume N\u00e9glig\u00e9"—casual wear—yet he's striking a pose as though on stage, right? The tight trousers, the open jacket, the tilted hat...it's all performance. Even his face reads like someone playing a role. There's a tension there, a fragility. I wonder what statements about masculinity were implied through presentation such as this? Editor: Indeed! You've identified the interesting contradiction at play here. There is a societal performance imbued in every selection of daily dress, here accentuated by neoclassical aesthetic ideals. The image, rendered in meticulous lines and delicate watercolors, speaks to the constraints and expectations placed on men to be perceived within the realms of elite status and wealth during this period, regardless of gender. Curator: It makes me wonder about the gendering of the gaze at the time as well: Who was looking at whom, and why? This fashion plate, seemingly directed at women, features a male figure...for what purpose? I am especially struck by how much visual attention is directed at this individual’s legs and the fabric clinging there—are there some subtle subversions in the way his form is depicted? Editor: It's difficult to say conclusively without diving deeply into historical sources, though, as you mentioned earlier, it absolutely suggests tensions within performance—gender and societal expectations, power dynamics, all within what seems at first to be a simple fashion plate. Curator: This brief look has really helped crystallize something: how art objects like this— seemingly frivolous, even—are always, inevitably, enmeshed in the larger sociopolitical realities of their time. The closer you look, the deeper you realize how intertwined presentation is to every dynamic involving gender, wealth, and perception. Editor: I couldn't agree more. I am left wondering how this individual might engage with these societal pressures in other dimensions of their lives.